Gunfire in Mali capital as junta gathers opponents

The Associated Press

Guns are being fired into the air in Mali's capital as the junta says they are still rounding up people associated with an attempted countercoup earlier this week.

Bakary Mariko, a spokesman for the junta, said Wednesday that there was no fighting between groups and the gunfire in Bamako was meant to warn people that patrols were being carried out throughout the capital.

A group of soldiers in the Mali toppled the country's democratically elected president in March. On Monday evening soldiers from Mali's parachutist regime, also known as the Red Berets, attempted a countercoup but all the strategic locations they managed to gain control of were quickly recaptured by forces loyal to the junta leader, Capt. Amadou Sanogo.

Mariko said that not all the elements of the parachutist regime had been rounded up.